Like the first volume of The Royal Irish Series, Faugh-A-Ballagh, but unlike the more eclectic second volume, Cry of the Celts, this third of four volumes,
Oft in the Stilly Night, is a set of recordings of traditional Irish airs and marches by the Band of the
Royal Irish Regiment (or, as it is billed here, "The Band, Bugles, Pipes and Drums of the
Royal Irish Regiment"). The core of the 25-track album is 11 tracks of brief tributes to the various battalions of the Ulster Defence Regiment, which was combined with the Royal Irish Rangers to create the
Royal Irish Regiment in 1992. Bagpipes are prominent in the arrangements, along with plenty of marching drums, such that it would be easy to think of the selection here as an appropriate repertoire for the band at a St. Patrick's Day parade, that is, if this were not the band associated with a British military regiment from Northern Ireland (and thus Protestant) rather than the Republic of Ireland. (Actually, religious issues notwithstanding, the band does march and play St. Patrick's Day parades.) In any case, this is another excellent collection of Irish marching band music from an excellent Irish marching band. ~ William Ruhlmann